The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection Quotes

“Men are very sensitive, Mma Makutsi. You would not always think it to look at them, but they are. They do not like you to point out that they are wrong, even when they are. That is the way things are, Mma--it just is.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“Now the tea began to do its work- as it always did- and the world that only a few minutes previously had seemed so bleak started to seem less so.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“When you allow people to do what they wish, then that is what they do. They stop doing the things they need to do.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“They should get another lawyer,” he said. “Surely there are better people around. That man with the big nose—you know the one—they say that he’s very good. The judges can’t take their eyes off his nose, and so they always decide in his favour.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“Mma Makutsi pondered this. "Why are there fewer and fewer gentlemen, Mma Ramotswe?"
"It is our fault, Mma. It is the fault of ladies."
"Why is that?"
"Because we have allowed men to stop behaving as gentlemen, and when you allow people to do what they wish, then that is what they do. They stop doing the things they need to do." She looked at Mma Makutsi across the steering wheel. "That is well known, I think, Mma. That is well known.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“And food made with love, she thought, tasted better-everybody knew that. It just did.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“We should all have a tree in our childhood...a tree one might explore, a tree from which one might learn how to fall.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“There were plenty of people who did not really believe in God, but who wanted to believe in him, and said that they did. Some people said that these people were foolish, that they were hypocritical, but Mma Ramotswe was not so sure about that. If something, or somebody, could help you to get through life, to lead a life that was good and purposeful, did it matter all that much if that thing or that person did not exist? She thought it did not—not in the slightest bit. BY”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“The sound of the kettle boiling was in itself the sound of normality, of reason, the sound of a fight back against the sadness of things.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“There are some people who should not be allowed on the road. Maybe they shouldn't even be allowed to walk anywhere, either. Maybe we should hang a large sign around their neck saying 'Very Dangerous', or 'No Sense', or something like that.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“People caused harm to others because they were of malevolent disposition, that was shear human wickedness. something that has always existed and always would.Some people it seemed derived pleasure from inflicting suffering on others...”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“In fact, none of us knows how he ever managed to get his LLB in the first place. Maybe they’re putting law degrees in cornflakes boxes these days.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“You did not squeeze hands when you lied; it could not be done.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“Has he not got a wife back wherever he comes from? Is there no wife to say, ‘You must not go off and visit library ladies’?”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“There were so many lives, she thought, that could only be led with difficulty, with pain, and because we were so bound up in our own lives, so many of these were invisible to us until suddenly we saw, and knew, and felt that sudden pang of human sympathy that comes with knowing.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“He will be a small man inside," said Mma Ramotswe. "He will feel small and unimportant. That is why he needs to put ladies down, Mma. Men who are big inside never feel the need to do that.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“I promise to share all my worldly goods-including letters, parcels and other items of correspondence, opened or unopened.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“...they are dazzled by all the money that they are being offered. That is what money does, Mma Ramotswe—you must have seen that. Sometime we need to look the other way when people put money in front of our noses. We have to look at the other things we can see so the money doesn't hide them.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“We must think of late people because I believe they’re still with us—in a way. And so a late person can stay with you all your life, until it is your turn to become late too. And the late person doesn’t want you to be miserable. A late person doesn’t want you to think that your work is no use. A late person wants you to get on with life, to do things, to make good use of your time.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“All that I know is that he is sad in his heart...that is the place where his sadness is. Right there. And I do not think that is ever very easy to deal with sadness in that part of the body.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“But then men do not see things the same way we do, she thought. They have different eyes.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“Of course not,” said Mma Makutsi. “There is nothing to be ashamed of in drinking one hundred cups of tea a week, Mma. Which is …” She paused again. “More than five thousand cups of tea a year, Mma. That is very impressive.” “Well, there you are, Mma Makutsi. Those are the figures. You cannot argue with figures, can you?” Mma Makutsi looked thoughtful. “And ours is just a small business. We use all that red bush tea for you and all that ordinary tea for me, and we are just a tiny business. Imagine how much tea the Standard Bank drinks. Imagine all their tea, Mma. Just think of it. Or the Government. All those government people in their offices drinking tea.” “It is a miracle that there is any tea left for us, Mma,” said Mma Ramotswe. “After the Government and the banks and people like that have taken all the tea they need, it is a miracle that there is any tea left for people like you and me, Mma, the tea-drinking public.” “You’re right, Mma Ramotswe. It is a miracle. The miracle of the tea.” “A good miracle, Mma Makutsi.” “A very good miracle, Mma Ramotswe.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“There are awkward moments from which one can retreat, and awkward moments from which there is no escape.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“Do not take on a traditionally built person unless you are prepared for a heavyweight bout.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection

“On the wall of this yard there was the wording, painted in high letters: Reliable Autos. We get you there.
"Get you where?" asked Fanwell. Chobie smiled. "Where you want to get. That's where everybody's heading, after all. To where they want to get.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection